Writing a Research Proposal

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The precise focus of your proposal will be slightly different depending on whether you wish to do a PhD, an MPhil or a research LLM.

A PhD is expected to make a significant original contribution to knowledge. It normally takes three years full-time (five years part-time) and the thesis should not exceed 100,000 words including footnotes. Thus in a research proposal for a PhD, you need to explain how your research is likely to be original and how it will contribute to your field of study.

An LLM should be a critical survey of a field of knowledge. It normally takes one year full-time (two years part-time) and the thesis should not exceed 40,000 words including footnotes. Thus in a research proposal for an LLM, you should describe the field of knowledge you intend to assess and explain why it is worthy of critical analysis.

The requirements of an MPhil are the same as for an LLM, except that the degree normally requires two years full-time (or three years part-time) study and the thesis should not exceed 70,000 words including footnotes.

Apart from these differences, the information that is required in a research proposal for a PhD, an MPhil or an LLM is essentially the same.

Choosing a subject area

When choosing a subject for your thesis you need to bear in mind the time and word limits for the PhD/MPhil/LLM and the relevant degree requirements.

For the PhD you need to think about how your study will demonstrate originality. It is not enough simply to reproduce existing knowledge. There are many ways in which you can demonstrate originality – it does not necessarily require you to study something that has never been studied before in any way, shape or form. For example, you could:

• Study something that has genuinely never been studied before
• Bring together areas of work that have not been brought together before
• Compare the topic in the Scottish legal system with the same topic in another legal system
• Analyse legal issues from a new perspective
• Work between disciplines e.g. by bringing philosophical ideas to legal issues
• Attempt a historical review of your topic
• Analyse new case law/new legislation on a topic
• Identify problems with existing case law/legislation
• Undertake an empirical case study to see if the law is achieving its objectives

You also need to make sure your topic is not too broad. It is inappropriate to write a thesis that reads like a textbook. This is not sufficiently advanced work and your treatment will be too superficial. You need to choose something that will give you the scope both to describe and critically analyse the law. For example, a thesis on “the law relating to criminal defences in Scotland” or “a review of EC law governing the enforcement of European law in national courts of member states” would be too broad. You would have to narrow down your topic to consideration of one particular aspect of the topic (e.g. one specific defence or one specific aspect of European law).

For an LLM or an MPhil, many of the same considerations apply. There is not the same requirement to produce original research, but your study should still be critical rather than simply describing the law in a particular area. The field of study is likely to be narrower than for a PhD, given the time and word limits involved.

Examples of recently successful LLM theses

• Private international law of defamation in the United Kingdom in the European Union context
• From Enthusiasm to Action: Mediating Return Applications Arising under the Hague Child Abduction Convention
• Psychopaths and criminal responsibility
• The Development of the Hague Children’s Conventions under the Influence of Civil and Political Rights
• The succession rights of cohabitants in Scotland and the influences of English Family Provision

Examples of recently successful PhD theses

• Devising an adequate system of regional and domestic rights applicable to the Gypsy/Traveller Minority in Scotland
• Parallel regulations of parallel trade in the EC
• From King to the Climate: Environmental Justice and Legal Remedies
• Greening Upstream South Africa: A Critical and Comparative Enviro-Legal Analysis of the Offshore Oil and Gas Activities of the United Kingdom and South Africa
• The intra-EU child abduction regime; Necessity or caprice? Empirical study of the effectiveness of child abduction provisions in the Brussels IIBIS regulation
• “Crimes Against Peace” in International Law

The length of the proposal

For the purposes of applying to the University of Aberdeen, your research proposal should be approximately 1000 words. However, specific funding bodies might specify different limits.

Information you should include in your proposal

Regardless of whether it is an LLM, an MPhil or a PhD proposal, it should normally include the following information:

1. A working title of the topic area

This is simply for the purposes of your proposal. You will be able to modify your title during the course of your research if you are accepted for admission.

2. The research context

This is the background against which your research will be carried out. It should be a brief introduction outlining the general area of study and identifying the subject area within which your study falls. You should also refer to the current state of knowledge (i.e. what research has been done to date) and any recent debates on the subject. You need to reference this in the same way as you would do if you were writing an essay, for example any articles or books you refer to should be footnoted with the full details of author, title, publication date and so on.

3. The research issue, aims or questions you intend to address

Against the background provided in 2. above you need to set out the contribution that your research will make. It is normally best to do this in the form of specific aims or research questions/issues.

4. The importance of your proposed research

Here you need to do two things:

(i) Demonstrate how your research ‘fills a gap’ in existing research (that is, show that it hasn’t been done before).

(ii) Explain why your research is important – it is not enough to say (as you hopefully have done above) that this has not been studied previously, you need to explain why it should be studied, that is why it is interesting/important.

This should probably be the longest section of your proposal.

5. Research methods

Here you need to do two things:

(i) Explain whether your research will be library-based and/or will involve fieldwork/empirical data (see below).

(ii) Give some detail on exactly how you will obtain your information.

Most legal research is library-based – relying on information that already exists in some form, such as journal articles, case reports, legislation, treaties, historical records. Some studies, however, might require the use of fieldwork or empirical data – that is, gathering information through direct interaction with people and processes, such as interviews, questionnaires or court observation.

Assuming you plan to rely on library-based research, you need to explain where your sources are located and how they will be accessed, for example via the library, internet, Lexis or Westlaw. If yours is a comparative or international study, you will need to explain how you will obtain the relevant international materials and whether or not this will involve travel.

If you plan to undertake fieldwork or collect empirical data, then you need to provide details about why this is an appropriate research method, who you plan to interview, how many interviews you will carry out, and so on.

In this section, you should also explain any special skills you have that will assist you in obtaining information, for example, if you plan to look at French law and you can read/speak French.

6. Timetable

You should provide a very approximate timetable for the research. For example, for an LLM thesis comparing French law and Scots law: months 1-3 reading theoretical material and developing theoretical framework, months 4-6 reading and analysing French materials, months 7-9 reading and analysing Scottish materials, months 9-12 writing up the thesis.